Maybe Social Media Is Not For You

(editors note: This is not my story, but a combined story of a few friends with a common thread).

You go to your favorite blogs and forums.  You post, helping people, relating your stories.  You’re a member of the community.

And over time, you notice.  You notice there is this douche who’s posting right after you on almost every comment or discussion you start or create.  Even more douchey, he/she is in your field, posting the equivalent of a press release in the comments above every comment you have, joining every group you join - even though that person knows no one in the group.

Now, I’d like to think that the people reading, in fact, I know the people reading the comments or blog posts or discussion threads realize it’s PR, and badly executed PR at that.  It’s PR with a side helping of douchebag.  My PR friends and acquaintances, for the most part, would cringe at how poorly executed the multiple instances I’ve seen for this are.  I’ve saved them as case studies for clients for what NOT to do, but I won’t post them publicly.

It’s interesting that the more successful one is in social media (or anything), the more people try to poorly imitate it; and although imitation is the greatest form of flattery, it’s also dead-nuts proof that you don’t have a unique value proposition.

So here’s the lesson - have your own voice (link to awesome presentation on where this idea comes from). It’s worth something.  And if you don’t think your own voice is worth something, and you have to hide your messages behind press release copy all the time, maybe you should take your ball and go home.  Social media is not for you as you’re only hurting your credibility being a copycat.  And that’s okay.

I’m becoming an avid devotee of Merlin Mann’s reformation around his work habits and “being better.” Although I don’t have a child that radically changed my view on life, I realized we all have priorities in our lives and we need to focus on that.  I’ve whole-heartedly swiped some of his ideas for my life, and they’ll ooze onto this blog when pertinent because after all, interactive media, social media - it’s about people and their stories and sharing the stuff that matters.

iTunes Genius’s Possible Impact on New Media

With the release of iTunes Genius in iTunes 8 (which I’ve been playing with for a day or so now), I realized that there is a metric that they’re not capturing that they could capture that would revolutionize podcast reporting (for good or bad, I’m not sure).

The number one question corporate types ask me about podcasting is if they can track how many plays their podcast has on devices, because with DRM’d (Digital Rights Management, or protected files) files you can do such things (which is one of the big reasons so many people like DRM - p.s., I loathe it) if the device plays along.  I’ve always bristled against such things, especially the level of tracking that’s available on email newsletters (tracking exactly who read what and clicked on what, and tying it to personal information).  I’ve always bristled against such non-anonymous targeting and don’t allow my company to participate in it (and I’ve lost accounts because I won’t do it).

However, I was thinking about it, and realizing that iTunes Genius could be the bridge that those customers want who want specific tracking - and Apple could make a pretty penny licensing the information in aggregate if they tied it to podcasts.  Sure, it’d be an aggregate number, but good enough for our purposes and more information that we had before.  And no nasty DRM software.  Everyone wins, except again, it’s only a snapshot because you still need the opt-in of iTunes Genius.  But better than what we have.

After all, once the podcast is on the iPod, except for little bursts found on sites like Last.FM you don’t know a layer of statistics (time played, number of plays, if it was just marked “played” but never played).

Your thoughts?  Or is this more data you don’t want captured, even if it’s “anonymous?”  Are downloads and methods enough for advertisers to make decisions?

Found Online: “The Problem With Being Free”

I don’t just like to post links without editorial, but I don’t have time right now - may write more later, but this was found on Chris Brogan’s Twitter, about the problem with being free in social media and web work.

After all, having been in this game for a decade in both “traditional” and “online” media, I totally get where Justin’s coming from.

Interview on Internet and Online Marketing

Thanks Rob McNealy (@RobMcNealy on Twitter) and the folks at StartupStoryRadio.com for interviewing me on internet marketing and how to find a good firm for your business.

Take a listen and enjoy!

Is Email The Best Way To Ignite Viral Marketing?

Everyone talks about how they want to “create” viral marketing - and I’m still very dubious that it can be caught in a bottle.

However, after listening last night’s to the most recent episode of Net@Nite with Amber MacArthur, I noticed something very interesting about Jibjab - a company that has actually been around for almost ten years doing online entertainment.

They push their newest content, especially their political cartoons - down the pipe of their 400,000 person email list.  That they didn’t buy.  That they amassed on their own on their site.  So in some ways, that email list has the same effective reach as mass media outlets.  And they’ve made a business model out of their cartoons through subscriptions for ecards - a surprisingly large online industry.

When you have the gasoline in the can of 400k people - and another video they did with Weird Al had another huge list - it makes perfect sense why their good content stands out from the other good content.

Sometimes, with all the new tools coming out, people get caught up in the shiny - and forget about the foundational items that work.

Is the web finally going mobile?

As I type this (or tap if you will) from my iPhone after installing the new Wordpress app I can’t help but wonder if mobile might actually catch on in the U.S.

I’m not going to be absurd and say it’ll happen tomorrow; but it WILL happen, in my opinion, when the competitors to the iPhone catch up for the mainstream masses; or, conversely, if Blackberry loses it’s top position. What are you doing to be ready for mobile?

Why (Some, Mostly Big) Businesses Don’t Get New Media

Saw a report today from the USC School of Business around social media and online initiatives - and the information was great.

All in all, the biggest reason why there isn’t an embrace of new media yet is that they don’t understand it… not to mention new media is still levels the playing field because the level of adoption of companies under 100 employees is higher than any other segment.

Following those reasons, we also see cost/staff issues (funny, as it’s usually cheaper and there are some great vendors out there to make it happen) as well as network security (seems like not a well-asked question; is it a concern of leaks or a technical concern?).

Big business in general didn’t always correlate new media to a competitive advantage; this tells me that this is the greatest opportunity for the small (Tier 5, Tier 4, etc) companies to use new media to establish beachheads and superiority in the online space before the big guys catch on.

That said, the three things that they saw most useful across the board was online video, RSS, and podcasting. (Editor’s note: glad we picked those areas to focus on) and blogs were near the bottom of perceived usefulness (Editor’s note: can’t pick’em all).

I’m sure, since it’s lack of understanding as the lead cause, since these decision makers don’t always use these tools themselves they fail to see how their employees and customers can benefit.  This USC information basically backs up what a pseudo-competitor (and overall good guy) said:

“They either get it or they don’t.”

My take is that those who don’t see it need to get on the clue train at the next station as it’s already left this one, if they want to be relevant and make money in the future.

The reality is that this is the way a whole generation of people connect; the playing field has changed.  From here on out, there is a line in the sand; a top-down approach as the past has been is less and less effective.  Of course, it still blows my mind that in 2008 over 15% of businesses we talk to over 10 people don’t have a website yet and close to 70% haven’t updated theirs in the last year.  It’s just not seen as a vehicle; it’s many times seen as a static brochure… and then they wonder why they don’t get any results.

I remember vividly a meeting a couple years ago where the potential client (this is more of a Web 1.0 story, but applicable) who was convinced nothing was wrong with their e-commerce store, even though they were only getting a couple hundred dollars a month on their $100,000 investment (obviously denial is not just a river in Egypt).

Their premise was that since no one told them their store was bad (it was atrocious - no product descriptions, no pictures, no search) that it’s not the problem.  Of course, online customers don’t always tell you it’s bad - most times they just leave and tell their friends.

They had no statistics or tracking package, no way to see where people abandoned their carts, what people did.. but it was still fine.  They did it their way with no input from their vendor; they did the graphics, the text, everything themselves because they knew what customers wanted.

Suffice it to say, they’re still failing in ignorant bliss.  Sad to see, but it’s their choice.  Go take their business from them, as the great equalization is still in effect.

Bad Adidas Ad Network Placement

It’s important to be very careful when working with any sort of ad network that your brand get placed with something that meets your brand standards.

Frankly, when it comes to ad networks, even the mighty Google gets it wrong - and a lot. Of course, with this sort of automated bid system, it’s almost unavoidable to have mistakes. However, the image below is a little bit of a doozy - I wonder if the Adidas folks are OK with this one…

The reaction I hear time and time again from advertisers and publishers is that brands want safe places to be - content that isn’t too controversial or offensive. And going with an ad network means that anything could happen unless you’re very vigilant and/or your ad network pre-screens the sites so you know what you’re getting.

A Secret To Making Money Online

I love the guys at 37signals - they’re not perfect, but they make solid products and do something that so many web companies don’t - that’s make money.  It seems like again we as a community are completely forgetting about it.

Check out this fabulous presentation at Startup School. It’s about 30 minutes long.